Obama Killing Space Program

Cited: The Washington Post

They are getting ready to put up a new sign at NASA that will read “For Sale: 355-foot steel tower for launching rockets into space, brand-new, never used, one-of-a-kind, going cheap, asking $500 million”!  That means the moon will never be visited by man again.

There’s one available at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Brand new, never been used.  The mobile launcher has been built for a rocket called the Ares 1. The problem is, there is not yet any such thing as an Ares 1 rocket — and if the Obama administration has its way, there never will be.

President Obama’s 2011 budget kills that rocket, along with the rest of NASA’s Constellation program, the ambitious back-to-the-moon effort initiated under President George W. Bush.

People here were shocked when they heard the news last month. They were already facing the imminent retirement of the aging space shuttle, and the likelihood of thousands of layoffs in the contracting corps but many hoped to find a Constellation job, stay on site and essentially just switch badges.

Now suddenly, they’re looking at no shuttle, no Ares 1, no NASA-owned spaceship of any kind in the near future. American astronauts for years to come will hitch rides to space on Russian rockets.

“It’s almost like losing manned space flight,” said Michele Kosiba, 44, a quality inspector for United Space Alliance.

The space center is a unique place, built on a flat expanse of marsh and scrub that knuckles into the Atlantic. Long, straight, government roads are lined with ditches patrolled by alligators. Launch towers stand sentinel on the horizon. From here, the United States launched some of its most spectacular national achievements. But the decision to kill Constellation has shrouded this part of the world in an unfamiliar gloom.

People are dismayed and bewildered. Obama has gotten the message and will fly to the Kennedy Space Center on April 15 to hold a space conference and a town hall meeting. He is certain to point out that his budget actually boosts funding for NASA. The new NASA strategy shifts the task of launching astronauts to low Earth orbit from traditional government contracts to commercial contracts. If the private sector can create a taxi to space, NASA can focus on new technologies and longer journeys in the solar system.

“We think it’s exciting,” NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr., a former astronaut, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “It will enable us to do things we can only dream about today. It will foster new industries, spur innovation, create jobs and lead to more missions, to more destinations, sooner, safer and faster.”

‘Cancel Constellation?’

A presidential commission, led by former aerospace executive Norman Augustine, reported to Obama last September that the Ares 1 would have limited use and that the heavy-lift rocket necessary for a moon mission probably wouldn’t be ready until 2028. At that point, the panel said, there’d be no money left in the program for a moon lander or moon habitat. In effect, the Augustine committee said Constellation, which has already cost $9.4 billion, was destined for a (metaphorical) crash landing.

“We could get to the moon and do what?” said Dale Ketcham, a University of Central Florida professor who runs a think tank called the Spaceport Research and Technology Institute. “The taxpayers would really be ticked off: Sixty years later we go back and plant the flag and go home.”

Lawmakers in Congress in both parties, particularly those in districts with space jobs, have given the Obama plan a cold reception. Congress still must approve Obama’s budget. Until that happens, Constellation maintains a ghostly existence as “the program of record.”

Which means that, every day, workers are still adding elements to the mobile launcher. Across the country, work continues on Ares and the new crew capsule, Orion. The Orion launchpad abort system will be tested later this spring in New Mexico. Even if Congress sanctions Obama’s plan, the administration expects to spend $2.5 billion just closing out contracts and shutting down Constellation.

NASA employees and contractors on the Cape say they were caught off guard by the new strategy.

“We just pulled the rug out from human space flight,” said Jim Bolton, a NASA manager for shuttle processing. The morning of the announcement, Bolton said, “People were just truly shocked. ‘How can that be? Cancel Constellation? What are you talking about?’ ”

Bolton spoke as he stood directly beneath the shuttle Atlantis, which was jacked up in its processing bay and completely shrouded in scaffolding and fuel lines. The orbiter is being prepped for its 32nd, and most likely final, journey to and from orbit. From below, some of the gray thermal tiles that keep it from burning up upon reentry are slightly scuffed, but it’s still a pretty spiffy spaceship.

“It’s such an awesome machine,” said Tim Keyser, a mechanical lead in another orbiter bay. “It’s not old. I go in the midbody, it’s pristine. It looks like it rolled off the assembly line.”

People here talk of the orbiters — Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour — as if they are beloved members of the family. There are only four shuttle flights left, with the last scheduled for September, though the timetable could slip a few months. Some lawmakers are scrambling to keep the shuttle flying, perhaps with a drawn-out flight manifest.

Howard DeCastro, shuttle program manager for United Space Alliance, the primary shuttle contractor, said the shuttle is flying better than ever. The main challenge for shuttle extension is restarting supply contracts that have already shut down. It would take two years, for example, to produce a new external fuel tank for an additional shuttle flight. Still, DeCastro said, “there are no showstoppers in flying the shuttle longer.”

What will really hurt, workers say, is the disappearance of the know-how accumulated over decades here at the Cape.

“We lose that knowledge base, it’s very hard to get that back,” adds Chris Loines, 43, a United Space Alliance contractor who has been launching rockets his entire adult life.

Soon, a taxi to space

The administration has promised to spend $2 billion upgrading the Kennedy Space Center. But workers here said they don’t know what that means, exactly. They don’t want to work on facilities, they want to work on spaceships. Terry White, a United Space Alliance worker who supervises the thermal protection system on the orbiters, said that putting money into KSC without a spaceship is like having a fancy showroom with no cars to sell.

Ketcham said the decision to retire the shuttle has only recently hit home.

“There was this communal epiphany — ‘Oh my God, they’re going to cancel the shuttle.’ And then we plunged into the classic five stages of grief. And rational thought is not one of the stages of grief,” Ketcham said.

NASA isn’t the only game in town. The Cape is shared by NASA, the Air Force and commercial rocket companies. On the Air Force-controlled side of the Cape, one will find the commercial rockets named the Delta IV and the Atlas V, each with a dedicated launch complex. And there’s a newcomer on the block: the Falcon 9.

This is the rocket built by SpaceX, a private company founded by Internet tycoon Elon Musk. SpaceX has a contract with NASA to launch cargo to the space station. The Falcon 9 has never flown. Framed by lightning towers, the 143-foot rocket is poised on an old Titan rocket pad, having been raised to the vertical position by two hydraulic jacks.

The scene is rather calmer than what you’d find at a NASA site. A low building holds cubicles and a couple of dozen workers. A few technicians in hardhats can be seen poking around the base of the rocket. In a hangar where the rocket is built, a lone figure sits at a desk. The commercial route figures to be cheaper than the traditional government route to space.

SpaceX would like a modified version of the Falcon 9 to become the commercial taxi to space. The first test flight could be mid-April, right about the time Obama visits the Space Coast. Musk has estimated the chance of success on the first try at between 70 and 80 percent. The final preparations include the installation of an auto-destruct system, said Scott Henderson, mission assurance director for SpaceX.

If it blows up, Henderson said, “It’s not going to get outside the fence here.”

From the SpaceX pad, looking west across the scrub of the Cape, the visitor can see the new NASA mobile launcher, parked for now near the huge Vehicle Assembly Building. Could SpaceX use that launch tower? Conceivably, Henderson said. But it’s not really designed for a rocket like the Falcon 9, he said. SpaceX certainly doesn’t need it at the moment.

NASA officials insist that they could still find a use for the half-billion-dollar tower even if the Ares 1 never materializes. But space technology tends to be highly customized. A worker on his way to the cafeteria the other day was overhead saying he wanted to climb the mobile launcher “before it becomes an artificial reef.”

“It’s just a big old tower now,” DeCastro said. “I guess you could sell it to SeaWorld or something and put a big ol’ slide on it.”

DeCastro, the United Space Alliance executive, said he doubted the mobile launcher could be useful without the Ares 1.

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My Take: I think they are actually stupid for killing the space program!  What with overcrowding of cities, food shortages around the world and global warming the people of this planet are going to need someplace else to live.  The first thing that is going to happen is the unemployment rate is going to skyrocket.

The article is right about one thing, we are going to lose a lot of the knowledge and advancements that the space program has provided us.  Stop and think about it, what kind of network security software does NASA use?  Or even intrusion detection software?  These programs were developed specifically for NASA and lesser or equal versions are on the market for everybody now.  In fact there are companies that provide managed security services with software that was probably developed by NASA.

I also believe that halogen light bulbs were developed because of the space program.  I know light bulbs themselves were developed because the space program, but I believe the halogen ones were.  So many things have come from the space program that includes medical advances, electronic advances, and much more than I can even begin to name.  It will be a sad day in America when the space program in its!

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More Affordable Long-Term Care Insurance Products Result of Economy

Cited: InsuranceNewsNet, Inc.

Because of the recent economic turndown, more affordable, cheaper, long-term care insurance (LTCi) products will become more popular at least according to Malcolm Cheung, vice president, LTC Prudential.  Seven of the top LTCi providers were surveyed on the impact of the recession on the industry, consumer behavior, product design, pricing and sales by Cheung who was one of the featured speakers at the Society of Actuaries Impact of the Economic Environment on the Long-Term Care Insurance Industry Webinar recently.

Effect on the Industry

Heung said credit rating downgrades, plummeting stock prices and government bailouts will greatly contribute to public concerns and LTCi products will be more susceptible to these due to the very long tail of liability. It has increased public awareness about the strength of financial institutions. This may lead to a flight to quality LTCi carriers based on size, brand strength, whether the company is mutual, stock, multiline or monoline, he said.

Carriers will likely increase their focus on product viability and the efficient use of capital in response to significant investment losses and the need for capital infusion to support annuity guarantees. Cheung says providers will slow the growth of their LTCi business or drop the product if it doesn’t meet their profit objectives. The pricing evaluation actuaries of companies who will remain in the market may use more conservative assumptions to improve profitability or reduce risk exposure, he says.

Regarding the effect of the recent economic changes on carrier and distributor commitment to LTCi, Cheung said majority of the respondents said both carriers and distributors of all sizes will be challenged with some players exiting the market within the next two years. Majority of the respondents expect sales to decline in the next two years but experience growth on the third year as the economy starts to recover said Cheung.

Effect on Sales

The economic stress may have a favorable long-term impact on LTCi sales and trigger a paradigm shift on consumer behavior, Cheung said.  He predicted consumers will veer away from conspicuous consumption and the heavy use of debt to fund immediate needs and focus more on savings, protection and planning for the future. As the market volatility has severely eroded retirement savings of baby boomers, the recession highlights the need for the type of stable protection that LTCi provides.

Consumers and producers both will likely put greater focus on more affordable LTCi products. “Lower cost reimbursement plans will increase in popularity at expense of more somewhat more expensive cash or disability model plans,” said Cheung. “Consumers may be willing to buy less rich, lower cost, more affordable policies knowing that Medicaid can be their stop-loss carrier without the need to spend down their assets.”

In the short-term, Cheung sees the less expensive form of inflation protection riders – e.g., 3 percent compound, CPI index, automatic compound, simple inflation – and products with no inflation protection riders at all — may be more popular. Non-forfeiture options generally available on LTCi policies will be too expensive and lose their appeal.

Hybrid or combo products such as annuity-LTCi will become more tax and cost-effective to consumers under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and should increase in popularity.

Effect on Pricing

Financial services risk managers may revise the definition of “extreme events” as a result of the recession, Cheung said. As insurance migrates to an economic capital model for capital management, will a more conservative definition of extreme event result in even higher capital requirements for LTCi products, Cheung asked.  “Will this increase the cost of LTCi to consumers further? Will this make a relatively expensive product even less affordable and ultimately will this result in even more companies potentially leaving the market place?” he asked.

Cheung believes the economic environment can impact the pricing of LTCi policies several ways. As discretionary income decreases, he foresees higher lapse rates. He explains that low lapse rates have been one of the factors that make LTCi policies expensive. Participation in employer-provided group LTCi plans may also drop and have an effect on cost.

The projected deficit spending that is expected to take place increases the risk of higher inflation in the future. Higher than expected inflation can have two effects on pricing. Cheung expects inflation protection riders will increase the cost of LTCi products at higher rates. If the product is priced based on some degree of claim salvage, higher than expected inflation would erode those salvage claims over the life of the policy, he says.

On the other hand higher inflation means higher interest rates. If the higher interest rate is sustained it could improve product financial performance. This in turn could help keep premium prices down.

Effect on Product Design

In response to the question on how LTCi product design would change if the recession continued for another two years Cheung reported that most carriers indicated that they will offer plans with shorter coverage with future purchase options and non-automatic inflation protection riders. The carriers surveyed also said they did not expect less comprehensive nursing home policies would become more popular.

It is possible that carriers will focus on providing insurance coverage to keep premiums down that are more affordable and nontraditional products.  These may include features that the consumer would find normally in healthcare plan such as: insurance, managed care and wellness programs.  Cheung expects this to be a very good possibility.

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My Take: I am one of those people who do not have life insurance.  The main reason is because I cannot afford it.  If the premiums start coming down I may change my mind.  However, one aspect that I think that the insurance companies should change especially with the inexpensive term life insurance policies is the age limit.

Many companies provide term life insurance for people between the ages of 50 and 85.  Once you reach 85 you lose all that money.  For example, if you are paying for a term life insurance policy with a payout of $25,000 if you die, that $25,000 disappears when you reach age 85 and in some cases is reduced to nothing more than $1000.  If you paid $25 a month for this policy from the age of 50, 35 years, you would lose approximately $10,500.  To me, it would have been smarter to put that $25 a month into a savings account.

My mother has such a policy, she is now 90 years old, and when she dies, the policy will only pay out $1000.  The insurance company has made a big profit from her monthly payments over the last 30 years.  In my opinion, she has wasted her money and the insurance company has been rewarded for her living so long.  I think this is completely wrong.  She should still get, or rather her family, should still get that $25,000 on her death.

I know this sounds like I’m upset that I will not get $25,000 because I’m all the family she has left.  On one hand, yes I am being mercenary about this.  However, on the other hand, she has paid in thousands of dollars over the last 30 years and all that will be returned is $1000?  That seems completely unfair!

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